Solitary Confinement
by moriartyswife
Summary: The truth was that I hated it here. Everything about living in a war riddled country was unappealing. Miki had suggested that Masamune would be easiest for me to work with, but I found his personality annoying. He could switch from this charmer to a heartless warlord in seconds. Gaining his trust hadn't be so easy. Now, he finds me intriguing, and wants to tame his little assassin.
1. Chapter 1

"It's going to rain," I said, holding up my hand to feel if it had begun yet. The sky was littered with dark gray clouds and there was a soft rumble of thunder in the distance. Weather like this was hard to work in, especially this late in the night. If this war council wielded any information about the assassination attempt, I'm sure that there will be some mission for me. Even though, he'd taken off in the middle of the night without a word and left me instructions to wait for him here.

Footsteps came from behind me. "Afraid of little rain, are you, Katria?" Masamune's voice held amusement. He stopped beside me, that ridiculous grin on his face. Something interesting must have happened for him to be so excited.

I turned my head in the opposite direction of him. "No." Being in Azuchi made me anxious. Nobunaga had a beautiful town and protected it well, but it wasn't home. While we were allies, the tides of war changed easily. One day we could have interests elsewhere and this place would become our enemy.

"Still a lass of few words," Masamune said, locking his hands behind his head. He strode off toward the main gate, knowing that I was right behind him. "You and I are going hunting." To prying ears, it might have sounded like small talk, but he didn't mean it like that. Not with how excited he seemed. There's been little to do around Azuchi and Masamune liked to stay busy.

"Together?" I asked before I could stop myself. He knows that I like to work alone. While I am loyal to him, and have been for many years, working alone is how I operated. That had been part of our agreement. However, he didn't typically stick to any of the terms and recently, I'd begun to let him get away with it.

The gleam in his eye told me everything. "I could always send you to Ieyasu. I'm sure you could teach each other some valuable medical tricks." His stab at me didn't faze me. That threat is getting old. He's never sent me away. Simply because he's usually too bored to not have me around. He finds my unusual medical skills intriguing.

I chose not to respond at all. Changing his mind was hard work, and this late into the night, I hadn't the energy to argue. It's not like I dislike being around him. I'd chosen to be part of the Date Clan. My welcome had been less than stellar for the first year, as the rest of his men thought me to be a bringer of bad luck and death. They had finally warmed up to me, seeing as I'd saved Masamune's life more than once.

"Don't go quiet on me, Katria. I keep you around because I love to hear your voice," He glanced back at me over his shoulder, another flirty grin on his lips.

The truth was that I hated it here. Everything about living in a war riddled country was unappealing. Miki had suggested that Masamune would be easiest for me to work with, but I found his personality annoying. He could switch from this charmer to a heartless warlord in seconds, something I'd learned when I came to him. Gaining his trust hadn't be so easy. More than once had I been on the receiving end of that sword. Masamune could pick out lies easily, except when it came to me. Because my entire existence is one big lie.

After months of being threatened on a daily basis, Masamune finally warmed up to me. And since that day, he'd acted like this. Every day was filled with his sweet words and charming smile, trying to win me over. Whether or not he actually wanted me, or he was just messing with me had yet to be determined. Either way, I hadn't given in. "You keep me around because I'm useful. Let's not make this out to be anything more than that," I replied. It's easier to just shut him down entirely than to play along.

Masamune stopped, making me almost run into him. His hand dropped to the hilt of his sword. "Even after these five years, when you say things like that, it makes me want to get rid of you. Why do you have that effect on me?" He asked, making his threat very clear.

Not that it matters. My skills as an assassin outweigh his brute strength. Should he try to hurt me, I could easily get away, or kill him. "Go threaten someone else, Masamune," I said, walking past him toward the mansion. It's late, and while I typically work at night, when I'm not working, I have to be awake during the day to do other odd jobs for him. "We both know you aren't going to kill me."

The 'shink' of his sword being drawn broke the silence. "Do you know what bothers me the most about you, lass?" Masamune asked, swinging the blade lightly around.

Turning on my heel to face him, I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Pointing the blade out toward me, almost touching my neck, he frowned. "You don't fear death. Even that informant avoids a blade when it comes near her. I suspect that you wouldn't even block me if I wanted to kill you now."

"I don't care if I live or die," I replied with a sigh. Dying would be preferable to what awaited me back home. Being skewered by a war crazy warlord didn't appeal to me, though. I pushed the blade down.

Masamune returned the blade to it's sheath. "I care if you die. You're under my protection, Katria. So, I forbid you from dying. That's an order. Even if you don't value your own life, I vow to value it for you."

Ugh. This man.

"Do whatever you want," I answered, continuing toward the mansion. That's why I dislike him the most. He wants me to be something that I am not. Those feelings other women get when he speaks to them aren't in my nature. My entire existence is built on being alone. Solitary. My life has no value because I'm not real. Katria Petrov is a made-up name from the orphanage I grew up in. Being made into an assassin was not by choice. So, I don't care if she's killed.

Masamune trailed behind me, quietly. This was a rare moment with him around. This man never shuts up. He's always got some kind of comment to make. But, it seems that my attitude about being killed has struck him into a speechless daze. With how he is, Masamune is probably plotting to get me to change my mind.

After a while the silence irritated me. It was like being followed by a sad puppy. The longer we walked in this awkward silence, more uncomfortable I became. "Are you going to tell me what we're going to be hunting?" This topic I was actually interested in, except for the part that I would have to spend more time with him.

"I thought that would be obvious. We're going to hunt down the bastard who tried to kill Nobunaga," Masamune said, perking up when I spoke.

I groaned. "Why do we have to do that? I'm an assassin, not a detective," I replied. Give me a target, and I can execute a plan flawlessly. However, Miki is the informant. She goes and digs up any all useful information. Doing that kind of grunt work isn't my style.

Masamune titled his head to the side. "What's a detective?"

"Informant. I meant to say informant. That's Miki's job, isn't it? She can find the culprit, and I can go kill them," I said with a shrug. No part of me wants to go on a long trip with Masamune out into the wilderness. We travel back and forth from his fief, and sometimes he drags me out to the battlefield with him, but never on an excursion like searching for another assassin.

He laughed, patting my head. "Must be a Russian term. Listen, Miki is doing her own digging, but it won't be so easy to find them. There's a lead I would like to investigate myself, and it'll be much more fun to have you along." Hooking his arm around my shoulder, he pulled me close to his side, like he hadn't just had a sword pointed at me. "It'll be a good trip for us to get to know each other," he said softly.

Any other woman would have swooned and blushed.

With an eye roll, I pinched his arm to make him release me. "If you want to know about me, you can just ask." Though, it'll probably be a lie.

"I have asked, and you've never told me the truth. We'll be alone for a while, and I'll get it out of you." Masamune still sported that ridiculous grin. It had been some time since he'd tried to pry my past out of me. Recently, I'd begun to think he'd given up, which made it easier for me. Guess I was wrong.

The thought of being alone with Masamune Date terrified me. He's unpredictable. A charmer. A warrior. Sometimes it was hard to read him. Like now, he grinned about being alone with me, like he could convince me to fall in love with him, but underneath it, he was attempting to get information out of me. This trip would be exhausting, always having my guard up. Alone with a man like him is dangerous. One slip and I'd be cornered by the One-Eyed Dragon.

 **A/N: This story has two companion stories! There's a lot of crossover between them. Clever Canary and The Ties That Bind Us are the two companions!**


	2. Chapter 2

Managing to slip away from Masamune hasn't been easy lately. Tonight, however, a vassal approached him the moment we entered the front door. Being light on my feet, I slid out before it closed, choosing to go around to the back. I'd be safely in my hidden space before he noticed I was missing. The maids paid no attention to me, gossiping about the latest scandal in town.

There was a part of the mansion that had been forgotten about. It should have been under repair, but since Masamune traveled back and forth between his home fief and Azuchi, no one had bothered to fix the area. Most avoided this wing. That's where I'd found my paradise of solitude, in an old study.

My own room should be safe, but Masamune doesn't know how to knock or how to wait until asked to enter. He typically throws the door open and barges in with whatever ridiculous question or request he wants me to entertain. It's never about a job. He sends vassal to retrieve me when it has to do with work. My room is no longer safe to hide and unwind.

This room had been difficult to enter at first. A shelf had fallen over, almost completely blocking the entrance. With some shoving and determination, I could lift it high enough to slip underneath. The rest of the place had books and scrolls everywhere, piles of forgotten texts on the floor. It was spacious enough to create a wall of them in the very back, behind another fallen shelf. The wood had splintered and sanding it off had been a lot of work. Books had been stacked high to make a barrier should anyone look inside.

Sitting down a pillow that I'd stolen from another room, I lit the last candle. There were ten of them in total, creating enough light to be able to read if I wanted it. Most of these texts were so old and filled with information about wars, that I'd grown bored. Instead, I opted for created strings of shapes to pass the time. The quiet was lovely. It had taken over a year to create this and it was all mine.

Until tonight.

"So, this is where you've been disappearing to," Masamune had somehow gotten through the small opening and was intent on invading this space to bother me. "I had almost forgotten this room was here."

That was the point. Sinking down further into my corner, I hoped that maybe if I didn't answer he would just go away. A stupid thought, as Masamune Date didn't give up easily.

"I know you're in here, Katria," he said, trampling on strewn out scrolls. Some ripped as he moved forward. At this rate, he'll destroy the place.

Coming out from behind my sanctuary, I sighed. "Did you need me?"

"I always need you," Masamune retorted with a sly smirk. He scanned the area I'd come from and he walked closer to get a better look. Like a child staring at a secret fort, he turned to look at me. "You did all this?"

With a nod, I couldn't bring myself to say anything else. Whatever he'd wanted from me would be overwritten with his desire to invade my personal space. If I let him past me into the corner, it'll be tainted. Staring as I waited, I folded my arms.

Masamune held up his hands in surrender. "Alright, I get it. You don't want me here." That playful gleam in his eyes made me internally groan. However, he only said, "We'll be leaving midday tomorrow for our hunt. Don't be late."

I'm never late. "Fine."

He stared a moment longer before moving to exit the room. As he reached the doorway, he snapped his fingers. "Oh, and I thought you might be hungry so there's a warm bowl of soup waiting for you, and some konpeito for a desert." He'd gone to the trouble of cooking for me? Lifting the shelf slowly, like he was waiting for me to take the bait, he glanced back.

And I made him wait, a solid minute before I resigned and said, "I guess I can come eat something." Thinking about food made my stomach growl. Meals weren't easy for me, as I hated to cook. Most days I only ate whenever I had to, maybe twice a day if lucky. It only took a few moments for me to blow out all the candles, lest I burn down the mansion with carelessness.

The two of us walked together back to the main hall, and like always, he'd gone overboard with his 'hospitality'. I shouldn't have let him lure me in with promise of good food. The table had plates of all kinds of foods and rice, along with only two places set for us. It began to feel like a forced romantic scenario by the second. He just loves to try to woo women.

"Soup and konpeito?" I asked, irritation laced in my voice.

Masamune put his hands on my shoulders, steering me forward. "You wouldn't have come if I had told you truth. Humor your lord and sit down," he said.

He was quiet for the first few minutes. Too quiet. It made eating hard to focus on because of it. This man never shuts up, ever. He always has something to say. There's a reason he's done this, albeit, it could be because he wants to win me over. That didn't feel right, though. Refusing to break the silence, I kept my eyes down at the food on the table.

"Katria Petrov."

I nearly jumped when he said my full name.

Masamune didn't have any kind of smirk on his face, instead, a very serious expression. "Tell me something, and I'll know if you're lying," he paused, wanting to make his words sound threatening. "What are you really doing in Japan?"

"What?" I'd paused mid movement to grab another bite of rice.

Raising an eyebrow, he repeated the question. "What are you really doing in Japan? Five years ago, you just appeared in the town I had been passing through and knew exactly who I was. What does a Russian assassin want with a powerful Japanese warlord?"

This question has been thrown around a few times, but always in different variations. Why did you choose me? Why did you want to come to Japan? Etc. etc. This seemed much more forward. There had been this underlying suspicion exuding from him since I arrived, but Masamune had kept it to himself mostly, likely hoping that I would fall in love with him and tell him everything.

"A safe place to live and work," I answered, as I always had.

My words sent a wave of annoyance through him. His eye narrowed at me. "Tell me the truth."

Setting the bowl of rice down, I shrugged my shoulders. "That is the truth."

"Not all of it."

Sending back an equally nasty glare, I let a few more things slip out, hoping to satiate his need to understand me. "My life in Russia is my business. It has nothing to do with you or why I wanted to work for you. You want the truth? Miki told me to. Based on her information, it would be easy for me to find work as assassin with a warlord like yourself. There was nothing special about it."

His silence hung in the room like tar. We were stuck, glaring at each other. He wouldn't get the answers he wanted from me. Sharing my life story with a man like him is the last thing I would ever do. Finally, he spoke again. "Nothing special, huh? If that were true, then I should have killed you that day you begged for me to take you in."

That is not what happened.

"I did not beg. I saved your life, and the offered my services as an assassin," I corrected. There was no begging involved. This change in subject had made him forget about his initial question. I'd humor him in this conversation to keep away from the other.

Masamune shrugged his shoulders. "You and I remember that day much differently."

I rolled my eyes. "You're just making up facts. You had no idea that ninja was following you."

"I did."

"You did not," I answered, much like a child arguing with another. He's such a liar. "Had I been a few seconds slower, you wouldn't be sitting here right now."

There it was. That playful grin slipping onto his lips and he leaned forward, resting his chin in his palm. "Enlighten me, then. How was it for you?"

I shouldn't play into this, but part of me wanted him to understand that I hadn't come to him because I wanted to use him or had ulterior motives Miki had told me to choose him and said that I would have to make a big gesture to prove that I truly wanted to work for him. That day had been long, and boring, having to follow him around and find an opening to even speak with him. That ninja had just happened to be the perfect entrance that I needed.

Sometimes, I do regret stepping in.


End file.
